Getting Assignments

Being certified doesn’t put you on a field. Games reach you in one of two ways, and which one you get depends on the league.

An assignor offers you games. Someone looks at your availability calendar, picks games that suit your experience, and puts your name on them. You accept or decline. Competitive leagues, including OYSA, work this way.

You claim games yourself. The league posts its open games and you take the ones you want. First come, first served. Recreational leagues often work this way.

Plenty of leagues do a bit of both, and the only reliable way to know is to ask. Your assignor expects that question from a new referee.

Your availability calendar is how an assignor knows when to offer you a game. In RefTown it lives under Schedules → Availability.

Colours on the calendar mean:

• Green — available
• Red — not available
• Yellow — available for part of the day
• Grey — you haven’t said

What a grey day means

This is the part that catches people out: a day you leave grey does not mean the same thing everywhere. Most organizations assume you’re available unless you say otherwise. A few assume the opposite. Your own availability calendar shows which one your organization uses — look once at the start of the season instead of guessing all year.

Setting a normal week

Most of your availability is the same week to week, so set that once and edit the exceptions.

Then go back and block out the specific dates you already know about — a trip, an exam, a family weekend — using the same screen with Specific Dates selected instead.

Changing it later

Edits take effect immediately, but they don’t reach backwards. A game already assigned to you doesn’t fall off because you later marked yourself unavailable, and an assignor can assign you against your calendar if they need to — typically when a game gets rescheduled. If a game you already hold has become a problem, that is a conversation with your assignor, not a calendar edit.

The full calendar documentation, including scratches and multi-organization settings, is on RefTown’s own knowledge base.

When a league posts its open games, you take the ones you want. Two places to find them:

• The notices box on the RefTown home page, when there are games waiting
• Schedules → Games, then QuickLinks → with Open Self-Assignments

You’ll only be shown games your organization has qualified you for, so a short list early on is normal rather than a sign something is broken.

Claim and Request are not the same button

Next to each open position you’ll see one or the other, and the difference matters:

• Claim — the game is yours the moment you click. Your name goes on it and you’re marked as accepting.
• Request — you’re putting your hand up. The assignor chooses from everyone who asked.

Which one appears is the assignor’s choice when they posted the game, not something you control.

If you already have a game that day, RefTown warns you and asks you to confirm. It does not stop you. Read the warning — it is the only thing standing between you and two kickoffs at the same time in different towns.

Take games from an end of the block, never the middle

Games come in blocks: several matches back to back at one field on one morning. The rule is that you never leave a single game stranded, because almost nobody will drive out for one game.

So from a block of four you can take the first two, the last two, or all four. Taking the middle two is the one thing you can’t do — it leaves an orphan at each end and the assignor now has two holes instead of one.

Requesting a game is asking for it. It is not being given it.

Assignors choose from among everyone who requested, weighing:

• Experience
• Whether you suit the position — center, AR1, AR2
• How you’ve performed
• Whether you’ve been reliable
• Sometimes who asked first
• Whatever else that assignor decides matters

None of that is personal. A new referee not getting a competitive game is the system working; those games go to people who have already shown they can handle them, and in a season or two that will be you.

If you want games you can actually count on this season, work the leagues that let you claim games directly. Build the record there, then request competitive games once you have one.

This is the one that changes a first season most, and it costs nothing: send your assignor a message and introduce yourself.

Say you’re newly certified, say roughly where you can get to, and say honestly what you’re comfortable with. Assignors would far rather place a referee who told them the truth than fix a game that went badly because someone was in over their head.

Assignor contact details are on the RefTown home page — scroll down.

Ask for AR games to start

Ask to be used as an assistant referee for your first stretch of games. It is a genuinely easier job, and it puts you on the field next to a center referee for a whole match — watching how they handle check-ins, how they talk to coaches, when they blow the whistle and when they let it go. You will learn more in four games as an AR than in a month of reading.

Nobody thinks less of you for asking. Everyone experienced started there.

Your assignor is your primary point of contact for the rest of it too: which league rules apply, what to do when a field is unplayable, how to file your first misconduct report. Ask them. That is the job.